~ IN MEMORY OF ~

"Bessie" (Tucker) McKeehan* holding
Sandra (Nipper) Ratledge, her great-granddaughter,
1226 Palos Street, Athens, TN ca. 1950

Granny McKeehan loved this snapshot so much that someone enlarged and framed it for her. She kept it hanging on the wall for years. Shown above, she stands in front of her old-fashioned flower garden between our house and hers. Behind her is the white bridal wreath shrub and purple lilac that she so loved. Various wildflowers, such as orange trumpet vine, wood violets, daisies, sweet William, bachelor buttons, and purple iris grew there. On each side of her roll-top mailbox were several beloved white peonies, which now grow in my yard in tribute to her. Beside her back porch grew the tall pink lady's thumb shrub and red cannas. Each spring, she wove a lattice of crochet thread on the south side of her front porch. In the soil beneath, she planted prolific morning glories that wound around and around those threads. This morning glory trellis shaded her glider all summer from the hot afternoon sun. Granny never had anything fancy in her entire eighty-five years, but her smile expresses happiness in the simple pleasures of life. Here, then, is my beloved link to the past.

*paternal great-grandmother of Sandra (Nipper) Ratledge

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Sandra Ratledge

All you kinfolks, put some mail in that old box!